Has Teddy Atlas ruined Povetkin's career?

Charles Martel · Apr 22, 2011

Alexander Povetkin was the gold medal winner at super-heavyweight in the 2004 Olympics. He has (arguably) the best amateur record of all-time at super heavyweight.

After he turned pro, he was fast-tracked and Sauerland had him fight some strong opposition, considering his lack of pro experience: Ahunyana in his 6th fight, Donald, Byrd, Chambers, etc.

But since Teddy Atlas took over as his trainer and started to advise him, he's seemed to regress. He's not fought a single top 50 heavyweight, and 3 of his 4 opponents were not even in the top 100 at heavyweight.

Now he's been inactive for months, with no fights scheduled. He did have a minor hand injury, but that's been healed for months now.

To me, Teddy Atlas seems to have a deep dislike for white boxers, especially East Europeans. So I was surprised when I first heard he was training Povetkin.

Povetkin isn't getting any younger. What may have been his best opportunity - the title fight with Wlad in 2010 which Teddy advised him to pass up - has already passed. Has Povetkin's career been ruined by Atlas?Edited by: Parody

Westside · Apr 22, 2011

Povetkin if he has a brain and ambition simply has to fire uncle teddy and like yesterday. I honestly do not know why he has not pulled the trigger on this. Its not like there are not talented and proven trainers out there who would jump at the chance to train a talent like Povetkin.

Maybe he has bought into uncle teddy's "i can bring you the championship, but you have to believe in ME and yourself BS line."

space hillbilly · Apr 22, 2011

I really think the fightwith Povetkin and Waldimir didn't come off because of the political trouble between Russia and Ukraine at the time.

As far as Povetkin's career, IMO hes is a lot like Sergei Lyakovich,both only fight to put money in the bank, being a champion means nothing to them...

whiteathlete33 · Apr 22, 2011

Yes, he has! Parody, he has ruined a few other boxers careers as well, Michael Moorer as you have mentioned. I think Alexander is done.

ww · Apr 23, 2011

There's a lot more to this than meets the eye. A nice Russian boy
doesn't just choose a psychopathic Jewish mafia thug from New York City
for his manager just by accident, and there ain't a n'r in the gym or
the Golden Gloves or the house of detention who would turn down a million dollar fight with the
champ.

Edited by: ww

Charles Martel · Apr 23, 2011

whiteathlete33 said:
Yes, he has! Parody, he has ruined a few other boxers careers as well, Michael Moorer as you have mentioned. I think Alexander is done.

He seems to drain the confidence from the fighters he trains.

Shannon Briggs was KOed by a journeyman in the last fight with Teddy as his trainer, but went on to have a fairly successful career after Teddy left, winning a world title by scoring the controversial win over Foreman.

Michael Grant never had a chin, but he had lots of heart as he showed against Golota and Lewis. But in his first fight with Teddy in his corner, he was stopped within seconds by McCline.

On HBO, George Foreman said Grant was stopped and injured early in the McCline fight because Teddy Atlas had not got him to warm up before the fight.

Grant fought lethargically in his loss to Guinn. The day before the fight, Teddy had Michael crying in the boxing gym by preaching to him in a negative and excessively abusive way. On HBO, Jim Lampley and Manny Steward questioned Teddy's being too harsh with Grant.

But now, years after Teddy quit as his trainer, Grant seems to have recovered his confidence and he appears to be enjoying boxing again.

Michael Moorer gave Teddy his ONLY win as a trainer in a world title fight (every other famous trainer has at least 10, several have over 30 wins). But I wonder if there had been anyone else in his corner, would Moorer have been KOed by old George Foreman?
Edited by: Parody

Phil · Apr 23, 2011

Why the hell would a russian boxer choose a jewish trainer? Jewish communists running the Soviet Union in the 1900's mass murdered tens of millions of russians. Most jews continue to deny thegenocide they committed. After that history, why would a russian man do that to himself?

white is right · Apr 24, 2011

More telling is how many fighters even have a sustained run with Atlas. Nobody seems to. Maybe because Atlas can't speak Russian and Povetkin's English is limited Atlas' overbearing personality can't come to the fore. I used to think Kirk Johnson was the problem when he bit Atlas(well maybe he is part of it), all you ever see and hear is endless stories about flare ups with this fighter and that fighter and eventually Atlas gets dropped. Or Atlas "leaves with honor". Edited by: white is right

Charles Martel · Apr 24, 2011

I found this post about Teddy Atlas on the BoxRec forum:

Rooney brought both discipline and respect. Respect is something Atlas cant get from fighters without trying to fight them himself. Hes suffering from a bad case of napolean complex and as for the fighters listed as being his what fighter did he ever develop that hadnt already been developed by someone else. Rooney clearly developed and improved Tyson into a compact, defensively sound offense machine. The amateur films when he was still with Atlas show he was nothing more than a raw walk in, wild banger.

Atlas is so overrated its ridiculous. Thats why he is constantly getting into physical altercations with his fighters, he wishes he could have been one and never could. He threatened Tyson with a gun, admits he packed a gun a went looking to kill Donny LaLonde (again a gun, real brave), hes gotten into fist fights with Kirk Johnson, Michael Moorer, and another lower weight fighter who he once trained whose name slips my mind. The guy was considerably smaller than Atlas. He tried to attack Foreman.

So he wants to preach about honor and ethics and all this other tripe. Give me a break. The guy is a walking joke. Slobbering all over the camera as he pontificates about things he can only dream of having done. Like I said, he owes Tyson a hefty percentage of everything he earns.

Charles Martel · Mar 3, 2012

What a despicable creature Teddy Atlas is. Now he's publicly bashing Povetkin - it seems like he ends up hating every boxer he's ever worked with.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=30999&more=1

Teddy rips ref and judges in Povetkin vs Huck fight

by Paul Strauss

Poor Joe Tessitore, he has to stand silently in close proximity to Teddy Atlas when Teddy goes off on a rampage. This time Teddy’s ESPN2 FNF overkill dealt with the controversial decision made in favor of Alexander Povetkin, who we all know is Teddy’s former protÃ©gÃ©. .

Teddy reached “overkill” levels on two fronts. First, he blew out of proportion the significance of the decision. Teddy felt Marco Huck was deserving of the win. Fine, that’s okay and he might be right in scoring the fight 8 rounds to 4. But, that’s the subjectivity of the sport. Teddy wasn’t satisfied there. He went on (and on and on) about what he feels is corruption in the sport.

His allegations have the referee deliberately interfering with the course of the action by injecting himself into the “infighting portion” of the action and preventing Huck from fighting his fight. That seems to be a bit of an odd charge if indeed Teddy still felt Huck won the fight?

Teddy also attacked the judges, and essentially thought they should be viewed as guilty of what Teddy feels is some kind of wrongdoing since he and others disagree with them. Teddy feels they should be forced to stand in front of the commission and defend themselves, and then when they’re found negligent, which seems a foregone conclusion of Teddy’s, they should be suspended.

Not satisfied, Teddy continued to rant about our corrupt sport of boxing. Such corruption, according to Teddy, is prevalent, and examples can be seen each week?

Finally, Teddy qualified his remarks by repeating over and over that it was not “sour grapes” on his part just because he had a falling out with Alexander Povetkin. Everyone knows, as Teddy emphasized, that that was Povetkin’s fault, because Alexander didn’t live up to their agreement. Teddy wanted Povetking to come to this country to train, which was more convenient for Teddy. Apparently staying where he was must have been more convenient for Povetkin.

Teddy tried to qualify things by saying (several times) that even if he were still training Povetkin, he would feel the same way about the fight, but he just wouldn’t be reporting about it. Too bad that wasn’t the case!. Then we wouldn’t have to witness poor Joe Tessitore’s pained expression, as he and the audience reluctantly listen as Teddy drones on and on, kicking the hell out of the “dead horse”. Here’s a tip Teddy. When you want to make a point, make it, and then shut up. When you babble on and on, it makes people want to side against you and wish you would stick a sock in it.

Has Teddy Atlas ruined Povetkin's career?

Charles Martel

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Westside

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space hillbilly

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whiteathlete33

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ww

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Phil

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